


The Right Path

by kendraleaanne



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Canon Divergence - Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route Spoilers, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Self-Indulgent, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:34:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24655435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kendraleaanne/pseuds/kendraleaanne
Summary: After the Battle for the Great Bridge of Myrddin, Byleth can't sleep despite the victory and finds herself caught in the warmth of Dimitri's cloak. Her dreams had never been sweet but this one was almost as bittersweet as the losses they had faced only hours before.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/My Unit | Byleth, dimileth - Relationship, f!Byleth/Dimitri - Relationship
Comments: 6
Kudos: 99





	The Right Path

**Author's Note:**

> This was the answer to my own need for a bit more angst and a bit more Dimitri fluff. Mostly canon but there are spoilers for those who haven't gotten to the Battle of the Great Myrddin Bridge in the Blue Lion route.  
> I hope you enjoy some quick sweet f!Byleth/Dimitri wholesome goodness!

_ “Go away. I have nothing to say to you.” _

His words echoed through her mind even here in the safety of the dark. It had been months since she came back to Garrag Mach and even though Dimitri had honed his already deadly skills to a jagged edge, every time she thought they were making progress, took a step forward out of the shadows of their past, he would remind her of just how easy it was to push her back. It left perfect openings for the doubt in the back of her mind to snake it’s way to the forefront of her thoughts when she least expected it to and suffocate the hope budding there. Doubt that she was doing the right thing. Doubt that she had any right to stand next to Dimitri and try to help carry the world of burdens leaden on his conscience. Doubt that she could lift the back-breaking heaviness of the ghosts that clung to the once proud shoulders of a young man determined to spend his life lifting those burdens from all those around him. 

Doubt that she could wash the blood of his sins clean after all the atrocities they had to bear witness to.

Rubbing her face in the shadows of her bedroom, she sat up and threw her legs over the edge of the bed to let the freezing cold of the stone floor seep into her bones through the bottoms of her feet. The moonlight caught the pale green of her hair to give it a silvery glow as it fell forward to cover herself and shield her from the reality of the night. The fact that the still of night would end and only bring more bloodshed when the sun rose only added to the burdens she couldn’t stop dwelling on. That was the brutality of the war she started five years ago.

The moon’s height told her she still had a solid chunk of time to unwind until then. Needing some fresh air to clear the web of worries, she grabbed the thin blanket over the back of her chair to wrap around her shoulders and left the shadows of her room behind in favor of the night’s peace. 

It wasn’t until she found herself sitting on the low stone wall behind her mother’s grave that the cold air took her hair and found it’s way down her back, sending waves of chills through her body for her to realize just how low the temperature dipped without the sun’s light to chase it away. Clutching the blanket closer to her shoulders, it did little to help warm her legs, exposed to the cold thanks to the length of her worn nightshirt. She liked to think it was one of her father’s old sparring shirts. It was left behind in the captain’s quarters, far too big to be anything but comfortable for her to sleep in as it dwarfed her arms and made her feel small and safe like when she was a child. It took her little time to claim it for her own upon returning to the monastery after so much time lost in the casm. 

Those memories weren’t doing much to help her out now as she looked up to find the constellations hidden amongst the stars shining overhead in the hopes that she would adjust to the cold. She wasn’t ready to relent to the exhaustion tugging at the edges of her mind. 

She was supposed to feel good about the victory of the day. They had won the Great Myrddin bridge but at the cost of a dear friend and ally. Their victory cost Felix his father and the man Dimitri had grown to see as a father figure of his own. Though Byleth had been there—had offered her hand and her support—Dimitri remained silent to Rodrigue’s last words and spurned the celebratory words in favor of the solitude he often claimed while off the battlefield. 

He was magnificent in his address to the people they had liberated and set in stone her belief that despite the distance keeping them from being close as they once were, he was still the rightful heir to this kingdom. He would be the one to lead them back to the right path. She believed in him more than anyone else and her relentless faith kept them all going. 

But victory tasted bittersweet if she couldn’t shake the nightmares of her memories. Another life lost to needless violence. One more parent gone from the lives of the children who need them. 

“You shouldn’t be out this late into the night.”

The deep timber was familiar in ways that brought warmth to her soul but that warmth was swept away by the dread of just what she might trigger in the beast of a man known to prowl the grounds at night. 

Though she missed his approach, Byleth was proud of herself. Proud that her voice remained even despite her own lack of proper sleep and the keen sting of his once spat words still fresh in her mind. “I could say the same for you.”

She turned away from the stars, only briefly, to catch his profile in the bright light of the moon.  _ Striking _ , she thought. Still handsome even though he had aged much more than should be possible in the five short years they spent apart. Still capable even though sleep was elusive at best for the man sporting permanent dark circles beneath the oceans of blue his eye held. It only made the sorrow fill her at her own inadequacy as someone who promised to keep them safe.

“What will you do? Send me off to bed like you used to?” He spoke with none of the brightness he used to expertly wield back when she would chastise him for staying up far too late at the training grounds and walk him back to his room just to make sure he would stay there. 

Sadness seeped into her smile as she found herself fascinated by the way her fingers wove and unwove with themselves in her lap from the truth that all the gusto was a mask he had only learned to forgo. Just to save him the hassle of lying to everyone about his true feelings. “I’m afraid that won’t work anymore.”

She found herself more afraid to speak than ever before. There was never any pity for Dimitri in Byleth’s heart. There was nothing for either of them to do about the last five years and she had never been one for pity anyway. Fear of losing him forever is what kept her from trying to get closer. The more she cared about him, the harder he resisted the kindness and even though the thought of remaining nothing more than an advisor hurt more than any sword blow or arrow could, she wouldn’t risk the security of the country as a whole when any one word out of line could send him reeling back to the state she found him in. Nestled calmly in the wreckage of his own revenge, the blood of his enemies soaked into the crevices between armor plates and splattered across his face. 

No, she wouldn’t risk awakening the beast even if it meant the chance at being able to tame his demons forever. Not yet.

Another breeze rustled through the leaves and sent a new wave of ice through her body. Maybe it was time to relent to the night and return to her bed with the hopes that maybe her ghosts had finally stopped to rest as well. 

Byleth gave the stars one last long look before letting the cool air fill her lungs, the stinging only temporary, before releasing it and managing her way off the wall. 

Her voice was soft and gentle like it had always been when they used to talk under the stars. “We should try to get some rest, at the very least.”

It felt hollow to Byleth, like she was trying too hard to smile and all that came out was a broken piece of herself as she focused on the frost melting beneath her bare feet instead of the unreadable look on her former student’s face. 

Dimitri gave a grunt, guttural and rumbling, before she turned away and started her walk back to her room. 

She realized as she ascended the stairs that Dimitri was following her, much closer than he had dared venture before, but shook her head of hopes that it might mean something more. Their rooms were remarkably close now that he moved from the upper floors of the dormitory and into one of the rooms just off the courtyard. Byleth was convinced he had only done so to limit the chance of being trapped somewhere with someone else. Though their friends were persistent. Mercedes and Annette felt little fear in his presence and Caspar, like Sylvain and Cyril, just didn’t care that Dimitri could kill them with less than a look. She was convinced it was the one thing the great lord feared; a forced social interaction.

So she tugged once more at the edges of her blanket and committed to taking the long way around even if it meant having to explain to Mercedes how she managed to get frost burns on her feet. There was no point in pushing him but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to give him every chance to change his mind about his obvious rejection of her.

She had only made it a few steps before warmth consumed her from behind and her eyes went wide from the shock of it. The weight of his cloak was maddening to think about carrying all the time but the gentle way he laid it around her shoulders made her think this--the moonlight and his company--was all just another of her conjured dreams meant to torture her once she woke and had to face the painful truth of her situation. Since she rarely had good ones anymore, she would relish in the warmth and take advantage of the sweet security of unconscious freedom. 

Her fingers tangled in the long fur kissing her cheeks before she turned around completely to face him head on. There were no consequences now and she was tired of pretending she felt nothing for the man she loved. 

“I’ve missed you.” Broken, her voice cracked as her lips drew into a melancholy curve that barely kept her tears at bay. “I don’t know how to stop missing you.”

It wasn’t something that upset her. Most days she found comfort in being able to see him—to know that above all else they were all alive and breathing. The same comfort she felt when she saw Felix and Sylvain talking strategy as the former landed blow after blow on the love struck fool still trying to pretend he wasn’t head over boots for his grumpy best friend. It was the same feeling she got when she overheard Mercedes and Annette sweet talking Ingrid into coming over after dinner to talk and catch up or when Ashe and Dedue took over dinner duties for the night to give the kitchen staff a break. The people she had come to think of as her family and the bonds they made were more than just a reason to keep going. They were warm sunlight across her skin in the dead of winter. 

In the dreams of her past, Dimitri would hold her and tell her all the things he missed about her as well. There were no big romantic gestures. Only the proof that everything she had done was working. That he was getting better. 

But this, Dimitri standing tall in front of her eyes, was not a dream and there was little she could do about the careless words she had spoken as his hand reached for her throat, precious cloak keeping her from any attempt at dodging. When she realized she had made her mistake, she waited for him to pull the safety of warmth from her body and end it all. Death was never something she feared and dying at the hands of someone you love, that would be an acceptable way to leave the world. 

But the release of death never came.

Her eyes split just in time to watch his fingers tremble where they hung suspended in the night air.

“I’m sorry for-“ though his hand dropped along with his chin, Dimitri started again with his eye drawn down so she couldn’t see the way his cheeks burned. “I shouldn’t have been so callous.”

“Dimitri…?” She wanted to step closer—to raise her hand and run her thumb along the sharp line of his jaw—but she remained still though she felt like she was drowning in the confusion of her sudden change of heart. Frightened of what she might break here, his name waivered as her lips quivered with the uncertainty that any of this was real. It was more likely that this was all a cruel twist of fate since the divines clearly had a penchant for screwing with her life.

He stepped back only to give a bow, one that spoke of his royal background in the way it felt so natural and foreign all at once. “Allow me to walk you to your room.”

“Oh-uh, okay.” She said, unsure of what was happening before she felt his hand take hers and wrap it around his arm. The heat from where his skin lingered over hers felt like molten lava and it sent her mind into an endless spiral of emotion. When had he taken his gloves off? Had his hands always felt this monstrous compared to her own lithe one? Meaningless questions circled endlessly as she allowed him to take the lead.

The walls of Garreg Mach moved too fast around her, vision blurring if she lifted her head to make sure they were still here, all the while her muscles felt like they were stuck in tar, heavy and slow moving in ways that only served to make her confusion even more prevalent. 

Byleth had never been more thankful that her room was only a door away than right now. It gave her the reassurance that only one piece of wood stood between herself and the closure of privacy where she could openly and honestly feel all the things she had been trying to tamp down since coming back to the place that changed her simple mercenary life. 

Dimitri, apparently, had other plans for her as they bypassed her room completely and continued right past her little sanctuary that felt more like a prison only hours before. 

“Dimitri?” His name was everything and nothing in that moment. He had become more than just a previous student—more than the man who would lead them. Byleth couldn’t stop herself from wanting to help him and the hope that this little walk meant he wanted more from her too was almost too much to handle. She was a strategist more so than she’d ever been a woman and nothing could have prepared her to navigate the goings on in Dimitri’s head. 

The hesitancy of her tone was easy to read, but she wasn’t trying to hide anything. Not from him, but Dimitri needed only a bit more time to find the right words to say. So he took them further into the recesses of the monastery towards the pond and her favored greenhouse in the hopes that he might gather the courage to fix what he’d broken. 

Knowing they were only strides from where her herbs and plants grew tall and healthy was like breathing fresh air thanks to the peace gardening always gave her. Though parts had fallen in around it, the fragile glass had somehow managed to stand proud, like it knew they would have need for the precious space during these hard times, and for that, Byleth was thankful. 

Though this place brought her peace it did nothing to defend her from the night air as it snaked up her bare legs and made her movement stiffer and her steps small enough that Dimitri finally stopped and gave her a look to convey just how little he thought of the delay. 

The harsh look only lasted a few moments before it dropped and Byleth thought she saw an honest to Sothis blush color the pale skin of his cheeks. It was one of those moments you never really think would happen until it  _ was  _ and even then, she was half sure she had fallen out of bed and damaged her skull. 

Standing on the balls of her feet, one hand rose from the thick fur that usually kept up the air of intimidation close to his person to press the back of it to his forehead to check his health as the other wavered in the space between them just in case she lost her balance along the way but not confident enough that he would catch her if she fell. He wasn’t feverish and she didn’t feel ill herself so that couldn’t be making this night one of the most bizarre she’d had in a while.

“I...should thank you.” His eyes abandoned her face but he didn’t pull away from her touch which was counted under the column of little victories.

In place of his usual hostility was a nervousness that only reminded her of their time here from ages before when he was a youth filled to the brim with bright promise and she a stranger hoping to find peace within the walls of a sacred holy place. It pulled her lips into a smile at the times not lost, but distant. Still there as a faraway reassurance that despite the chaos they found themselves wading through, they had a strong foundation to build on.

Byleth lowered her hands as her eyes caught the beams of moonlight to bring an ethereal glow to her that threatened to steal the very breath from Dimitri’s lungs as he finally realized that this-no, that  _ she  _ was the only peace he had found from his ghosts. He had foolishly mistaken her for another ghost of his past there to push him even closer to his own death, but he had never been more wrong in his life as the truth of it hit him square in his chest. It was painful and tight, foreign and uncomfortable, but bearable thanks to the little light of hope burning at the core of the pain.

“There is nothing for you to thank me for, Dimitri.” A voice like the sweetest song, he remained frozen in place with his hand clutched over his heart. “I’m only trying to help where I can, same as the rest.”

The moment hung for what shouldn’t have been possible before he took a bold step into her space, ever vigilant in his guard for attacks as he watched her movement to ready himself if need should arise on pure habit. His denial of her breezy dismissal was swift and concrete but his hand was anything but as he cupped her face to lean his forehead to hers.

Byleth didn’t know the reasons and in this moment, she didn’t care to know. Dimitri was solid and warm and  _ here. _ That was all she needed as she pushed back into him to let him know she wasn’t going anywhere, no matter how hard he tried to push her away.

“You are all that I have to cling to,” the strength of his voice was defiant against the soft whisper of his volume like he was terrified of breaking the spell but too passionate to stop himself. It made her smile break past the point of faking filled her with uninhibited joy at the flash of the boy she remembered so fondly. “You have seen death, so much of it, and still remain true as you always have been.”

Byleth let him take whatever time he needed. She had waited this long, what was a few minutes more.

When he finally spoke again, she had rubbed the tip of her nose with his to remind him that she was real, tangible, and here for him. “I’m afraid I have a selfish request to ask.”

She felt the familiar heat of tears behind her eyes but none fell as she whispered her answer. “Anything.”

“Stay by my side and teach me to be the good you see in everyone.” Lost to the sincerity of his words, she was too distracted to feel when he wrapped his arms around her body until his nose was buried in her hair, the breath of his lips caressing the cold tips of her ears as he pulled her deeper into his body. “Teach me to be a man worthy of standing beside you.”

The lilting song of her laughter caught him by surprise but before he could pull away, her arms found their way to his face, thumbs tracing the strong line of his jaw to soothe his panic. “Stubborn man…”

She should have known they both would have been beating themselves up for the things they couldn’t change. Neither thinking themselves worthy of the other when it was just the opposite.

Her touch left behind lightning as her fingertips trailed down his chest to take his hand in hers, the darkness in his heart chased further away each second he allowed himself to have with her.

He was helpless to her as she pulled him back up the path they had just walked. How long had he been stuck inside his own brain, missing the kind of support she had to offer? How long would he have ket pushing her away? Not only Byleth, but the rest of his friends and those they had gathered along the way. The magnetism that was Byleth as a person garnered the attention of comrades across the whole of Fodlan and nurtured friendship where rivalry was destined to grow strong enough to overcome the faults of his less than honorable personality.

The sound of her door, hinges in desperate need of oiling, brought him back to the present as he looked down at her expectant face. The way her eyes shined, she must have just spoken to him and he was so utterly lost in his own thoughts, there was nothing for him to say aside from a vague noise of understanding.

Whatever she asked, his response must have been the right one as another of her warm smiles graced her lips before leading him into her room. Much the same as it always was, she was tidy and organized. True to her own words--everything has a place and everything belongs in its place--the only things scattered were books and maps spread across nearly every surface with tactical flags marking their own troops and those of the enemy. Dimitri had been blind to the efforts she had been putting toward his cause. While he toiled away in his misery, she was playing through all the possibilities to make sure the only ones that came to fruition were the ones that promised victory without casualties.

“Sit.” The command came easy as Byleth gave him a shove toward her bed before shrugging his cape from her shoulders to lay the thick fabric over a chair nearly forgotten about in the corner from lack of necessity. He never thought he would be in such a prime position as the one he found himself in right then. It might have even excited someone like Sylvain but it only served to make Dimitri’s palms sweaty.

The instant his cloak was removed, the creamy skin of her legs was nearly completely on display for him and he had never thought he would be wishing for those damned silly lace pants she always wore to save some of his newfound sanity in check. He was a grown man, one with more deaths on his hands than he’d care to count, and here he was struck mute by a simple pair of legs. Maybe that’s where his fault lay. They were more than a simple pair of legs. These were attached to a goddess in all but title.

It was as if his mouth had grown dry and the night air sweeping from her window was useless against the embers of desire starting to grow in the depths of his stomach as she approached him. Each step closer was another fan to the flames and he had to keep himself from giving in to the urge to fidget where he sat perched on the edge of her mattress.

He didn’t know when she had picked up the brush in her hand but it didn’t matter as she ran her fingers through the tangled blond of his hair, his eye trying to take in as much of her as he could before the other shoe would drop and he would inevitably mess the whole thing up. It was all so unfamiliar, the sensation of someone running their fingers across his scalp. The courage she had for fearlessly stepping between his legs even though she knew just how many blades he had hidden in the nooks of his armor. Even when she pulled the strings that kept his eye covered, he remained under the spell wound through his very being. Tame and docile, he leaned into the hand bracing his shoulder before taking it in his own to press the cool skin to his lips.

He wanted to kiss away all the pain that had befallen her. It was a doomed endeavor but he persisted until she finally stopped brushing through his hair to trace the gnarled scar tissue of where his eye used to shine bright. It was his own carelessness that pushed him to make the choice that lost him the eye in the first place. The apathy he held for his own life drove him to make the choice to take the blow that would surely take the eye in exchange for giving him the room for his lance to cut the life from his enemy. 

Byleth didn’t know how or why his sight would forever be lost and she might never know. It wasn’t important as long as he remained alive and here. Completely still under the soothing back and forth of her fingertips, she felt like she had finally found the piece of home she had been chasing. As long as she still had the power to save him, there was nothing she wouldn’t do for the people of Fodlan.  _ His  _ people.

“Take your boots off before you lay down.” It was spoken into his hairline as she pressed her lips to his temple before she moved to lift her covers and crawl into her bed.

It was simple. Somehow, in that simplicity, she had given him a clear view into her most intimate thoughts. There were no expectations. Only the thought that tomorrow would be another day they would face together. It was all he could handle right now. Tomorrow would be another day for him to bridge the gaps he made all on his own but tonight would be spent sharing mutual comfort with the only person who knew him better than he knew himself.

So he took off his boots, sat them next to a much smaller pair at the foot of the bed, and filled the entirety of Byleth’s bed with the broad expanse of his body as the scent of her eased all his tangled worries.

Her arms opened as she beckoned him to turn towards her, his ear pressed to her chest as the steady rise and fall of her breathing lulled him into sleep and they took the first step towards the future together. 

  
  



End file.
